Manasseh Dawes (died 1829) was an English barrister and miscellaneous writer.

Life

Dawes was a barrister of the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

. He left the bar and lived quietly at Clifford's Inn for the last thirty-six years of his life. He died 2 April 1829.

Works

Dawes took the Whig side on the

American War of Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, and the law of libel; but defended

William Blackstone Sir William Blackstone (10 July 1723 – 14 February 1780) was an English jurist, judge and Tory politician of the eighteenth century. He is most noted for writing the ''Commentaries on the Laws of England''. Born into a middle-class family i ...

against

Jeremy Bentham Jeremy Bentham (; 15 February 1748 Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._4_February_1747.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 4 February 1747">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.htm ...

, had doubts as to abolishing tests, and held that philosophical truth was beyond reach. His major works were: *'Letter to Lord Chatham on American Affairs,' 1777 (in the title-page he describes himself as author of 'several anonymous pieces '). *'Essay on Intellectual Liberty,' 1780; it criticised Jeremy Bentham's 'Fragment'. *'Philosophical Considerations', on the controversy between

Joseph Priestley Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted exp ...

and Richard Price, 1780. *'Nature and Extent of Supreme Power', on

John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism ...

's 'Social Compact', 1783. *'England's Alarm, or the prevailing Doctrine of Libels,' 1785. *'Deformity of the Doctrine of Libels,' 1785; this and the previous work refer to

the Case of the Dean of St Asaph The Case of the Dean of St Asaph, formally ''R v Shipley'', was the 1784 trial of William Davies Shipley, the Dean of St Asaph, for seditious libel. In the aftermath of the American War of Independence, electoral reform had become a substantial ...

. *'Introduction to a Knowledge of the Law on Real Estates,' 1814. *'Epitome of the Law of Landed Property,' 1818. Dawes also edited (1784) a posthumous poem by John Stuckey on 'The Vanity of all Human Knowledge,' with a dedication to Priestley.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Dawes, Manasseh Year of birth missing 1829 deaths 19th-century English writers English barristers Members of the Inner Temple